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t3garett

Need help with my dream : the astute !

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Hello everyone,

I am new to this forum but I've been reading it for about 3 months now, what a vast quantity of knowledge !

I am going to do a full presentation soon but for now I'm in desperate need of help !

I have 5 vintage tamiyas and I have just acquired my dream car the astute. It's in quite good condition with some nice improvements ( super astute front brace, hi cap dampers and an interesting Kyosho Le mans 360 gold motor ).

I've been folowing the excellent "astute guide" an virtually every post on here about the astute.

My problems however are the following : the gear box shafts (inside the gear box ) are very worn and marked and I have no idea where to find some new ones ?

Also I have dismantled and cleaned the diff which is in surprisingly good condition but I would like to find diff parts ( balls and spacers ) and have no idea what will fit.

Could you experts please point me in the right direction ???

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Welcome to TC and looking forward to seeing that presentation!

You just have to be patient given that the parts that you need are very scarce and only pop up for sale occasionally. The balls are 2mm balls which only featured in a few cars (Astute/Madcap/Egress) and the diff parts bag again, only comes up on EBait from time to time. If you are going to build a runner, then I suggest you keep your eye out for a spare car too. Buy a junker and use this for spares and repairs as best you can.

I'll do a bit of homework myself and get back to you if I can assist further.

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Hello there,

Thanks for the info, that's pretty much what I expected !

Yes the car is to be a runner ( I collect tamiyas but all my cars are runners ) I have just had some luck and managed to get a Super astute gear bag and a Super astute clutch bag, from what I've been reading this is the best thing I think, but I don't know if I have everything I need now to convert my astute to super astute gear box ???

I think I need some special shafts for the gear housing but I'm not sure ???

Pics will be coming soon !

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Right after several hours research in all my manuals and also a couple of telephone I've finally sourced everything I need to build this super astute gearbox, everything but the main gear box shaft ( SA4 / part nb 3455262 ) !!!!

It's driving me nuts !

Does anyone by any chance have a super astute main gearbox shaft hanging around ? Even in poor condition it'll be better than nothing.

Please help me

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well, while I wait for some kind soul to help me out I do a quick presentation with some pics !

So my name is Leslie I'm 29 years old, I used to love rc cars as a kid but never had the cash to fully enjoy them, I then moved on to real cars and motorsports ( I do VHC rally with a lancia delta hf integrale ) and now that I have a baby boy well I ave less time to spend in the garage since I have to be around the house to make sure he doesn't create too much mayhem and the idea suddenly dawned on me that I could do mechanics in the house with RC cars so I got my sorry battered to death but faithful Bear Hawk out and decided to bring it back to life. From that point on I acquired a Super Hornet, a DF02 Plasma edge for bashing around the forest and a tt01 for bashing around the street and a couple of days ago my dream came true and I managed to purchase an astute for 120 euros ( good or bad price ??? ). Here are some pics of the astute the seller sent me ( I didn't take any myself since I was so eager to dismantle it ! )

IMG_2276.jpg

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The car came with a lot of parts so if anyone needs original astute parts just tell me I'm happy to help out ! On the car there was a Kyosho 360 le mans motor and the original + a "Team orion pilot 19t" were given with the car. The car has the hi caps, the super astute front brace, a super astute gear plate (marked SA and slightly brownish ) and what appear to be super astute front wheel hubs ( is that the right term ?the things that make the wheels change direction ).

I also forgot to say that I live in France but I am english.

I'll post some other pics of my cars soon.

By the way I live in france

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Here are some other photos :

My super hornet doing what it was meant to do !

20140813_164214.jpg

My bear hawk :

20140827_144008.jpg

20140827_143934.jpg

20140828_085907.jpg

And my Plasma Edge :

20140825_121331.jpg

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Hi, my special respect to you cause you ran the Lancia Delta Integrale. Since 1992 I would buy this car but have not the money.

Let's go to your Astute that is a Mk1, early release, you can see it from the rear arms without brace.

The car is equipped with Super Astute G parts, so front brace and battery mounts. The rest is Asute but you missed the front sway bar.

120 € is the right price in my opinion. The car is in good conditions but the shocks are the Kyosho Option House and not the Tamiya Hi Cap Dampers. The front knuckles are from Super Astute/Dyna Storm.

I'm sorry you cannot convert your gearbox to Super Astute one.

In fact the rear gearboxes look similar but they are different due the main shaft housing. The left main shaft ball bearing needs an housing not present on the Astute gearbox, sorry.

To have the TTC you need a complete kit (very expensive) or all parts that are:

Super Astute A parts and ball bearing housing (A3).

2 pieces of 5mm E-Clip.

Super Astute motor plate (they are indentical except the color and the SA mark).

Super Astute Gears.

Super Astute internal diff gears (same of the Avante, Vanquish, Avante 2001 and Avante 2011).

Plastic brace (better if you find it in aluminum).

All ball bearings obviously.

Diff cups.

Slippery spur gear main shaft.

Iddle gear shaft.

Slippery pad discs.

Slippery bearing.

Slippery pressure plates.

Slippery thrust bearing.

Slippery cup washers and nut.

Slippery clear lexan cover (***** makes it).

Pinon gear module is 0.5, same of DF03 chassis.

The best place to source these parts are obviously the Tamiyaclub (traderooms section in the homepage and Wanted & sales forum section) and eBay.

If you want to spend some time I wrote a guide about the Astute (sorry for my English), you can find them in my showroom.

I yet must write the 4th and last part about the gearbox, sorry.

Max

well, while I wait for some kind soul to help me out I do a quick presentation with some pics !

So my name is Leslie I'm 29 years old, I used to love rc cars as a kid but never had the cash to fully enjoy them, I then moved on to real cars and motorsports ( I do VHC rally with a lancia delta hf integrale ) and now that I have a baby boy well I ave less time to spend in the garage since I have to be around the house to make sure he doesn't create too much mayhem and the idea suddenly dawned on me that I could do mechanics in the house with RC cars so I got my sorry battered to death but faithful Bear Hawk out and decided to bring it back to life. From that point on I acquired a Super Hornet, a DF02 Plasma edge for bashing around the forest and a tt01 for bashing around the street and a couple of days ago my dream came true and I managed to purchase an astute for 120 euros ( good or bad price ??? ). Here are some pics of the astute the seller sent me ( I didn't take any myself since I was so eager to dismantle it ! )

The car came with a lot of parts so if anyone needs original astute parts just tell me I'm happy to help out ! On the car there was a Kyosho 360 le mans motor and the original + a "Team orion pilot 19t" were given with the car. The car has the hi caps, the super astute front brace, a super astute gear plate (marked SA and slightly brownish ) and what appear to be super astute front wheel hubs ( is that the right term ?the things that make the wheels change direction ).

I also forgot to say that I live in France but I am english.

I'll post some other pics of my cars soon.

By the way I live in france

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Thank you for your reply Max, I was hoping you would answer, I have read your astute guide about 5 times already and I am waiting for part 4 !!!

Thank you for all the info about my car, I had no idea the dampers were kyosho and not hi cap, how can you tell ??? Is it a bad thing or a good thing ? I've dismantled them and they are in good condition and appear to be quite good dampers.

From what you have described for the super astute gearbox I now have all the parts ( the A parts, the gear bag, the clutch bag, the knuckle bag with the diff gears, c clips, bearings and diff cups ) but I'm still missing the main shaft and idle shaft.

I'll just have to wait and cross my fingers and run the car with the ball diff.

In my astute ball diff I only have 2 SC7 diff spacers do I need more ???

Also one last question can I use the super astute gear diff in my astute gear box while I wait to find the shafts or will it not work ?

Glad you like delta integrales, I could post a picture (I don't know if the admins would appreciate ) I still race the car twice a year, I also have another italian car that may be of interest to you, an alfa romeo 75 turbo.

Thanks again for all the info !

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Hello all,

Time for some news :

Thanks to some very great people on here, namely Max "Kontemax", some friends and a lot of luck I am very pleased to say that, firstly My astute runner is finished and working... but also that I now I am the proud, very proud owner of 2 super astutes !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am also happy to announce that thanks to Max and myself I have resolved the "Super astute main gearbox shaft" problem.

I am going to fill in this post with the most pics and information I have to give to you all, you can view this thread as a sort of complement to Max's excellent "astute guide thread". I won't go into as much detail as Max but I will try and show you all the little things I discovered when building these cars, there are, as I found out, a lot more subtle differences between the astute and super astute than I thought.

I will do this in instalments because I don't have time with my work and fimily to write it all up in one big go.

Stay tuned !

Pics are coming tonight :D

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Ok so first off a couple of pics from the build of my tamiya astute, bare in mind that this was some time ago, I had no super astute parts a part from battery holder and front brace, so used some of the tricks I learned on tamiyaclub, such as rear blitzer hubs and D1 parts.

Here we go :

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Also my astute had a "super astute" motor plate for some strange reason ???

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Here is a picture of the car after its first run ( sorry for the quality )

20140913_204317.jpg

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I used a Kyosho 360Gold "le mans" motor with this car and it ran very well, quite fast and good acceleration :

20140913_204333.jpg

But after 5 battery packs and a couple of accidents, on dismantling the car, I encountered all the woes of the astute owner :

- Broken front bulkhead

- Broken rear shock tower mount

- Half melted diff ( the center plastic ball holder heats up, warps and destroys all the transmision )

But also some other inherent flaws : chronic understeer, a very sloppy rear end and virtually no rear diff action thus making the car very very difficult and delicate to drive on rough / loose terrain.

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After a lot of research and questions asking it became clear that what I really needed and wanted was a super astute. Even with all the best intentions in the world to make an astute "bomb-proof" and a more competitve car is basically to turn it into a super astute to finally get hold off the famous TTC gearbox ( tamiya traction control gearbox ), a gearbox with a gear diff (instead of balls ) and a clutch or slipper to limit power delivery to the rear wheels. After months of hunting for a super astute without succes and hunting for a TTC gearbox, I finally sourced all the parts to build the TTC, all but one : the super astute main shaft. That is when I first "met" Max who helped me and guided me.

A month later I found this :

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It was expensive, more than I hoped to pay and in bad condition, the body is in the bin ( it was completly dead ) but it was complete with all the super astute greatness B)

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Hi all ,

A bit more !

So after receiving the super astute with a broken main shaft ( this happens alot, they snap at the base of the thread when overtightned ) I got to work cleaning everything up and checking everything. I'm not going to post the whole build but only the interesting super astute bits :D

So here are the main super astute parts once cleaned, they are by no means "new" but I've never been into shelf queens so that doesn't bother me, this is a runner like all my cars so I'm afraid it's a case of functional before pretty with me !

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I've put lots of picture because if there is anyone out there like me ( a complete super astute nut :wub: ) I know you'll enjoy cause when I was searching all over internet for pictures of the "graal" I coudn't find any decent close-ups of super astute parts.

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Now comes the cool part,

I'd found all the parts brand new for the TTC gearbox but the main shaft remained an elusive mystery... until Max gave me the plans he drew up of his super astute main shaft. I used to be a race-mechanic and did a lot of work as a machinist so with Max's help I made these :

20141120_200726.jpg

From bottom to top you have :

Super astute TTC gearbox main shaft

- Hand made (by me ) main shaft (identical to original item but in much stronger steel. )

- Modified super astute main shaft, Max's brilliant idea to incorporate a spring to fine tune the clutch instead of the "trust washers".

Al the credit goes to Max :D

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So then I was all ready, and this is what you need to build the super astute gearbox :

*

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You can notice several interesting things :

1st of all the super astute gear case is not the same as the astute it has 2 different holes to incorporate the main shaft

The diff is a gear diff that closely ressembles egress/ vanquish / avante diffs but has 1 more tooth !

Next to the gear box housing you can see a small cylindrical black piece of plastic: this is the tool to put the 850 bearing into the gear housing.

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This is due the fact that Egress and Avante gears are 0.6 module and Super Astute gears are 0.5 module.

Max

The diff is a gear diff that closely ressembles egress/ vanquish / avante diffs but has 1 more tooth!

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Hi doing a super astute myself but missing a few parts. I too need a main shaft. Is it possible to get the drawings of the shaft with measurements? I also need a driveshaft. Are the clutch parts used on another model? as I need those too. 

I have a few parts to trade if anyone needs any astute parts. 

Thanks. 

Neil

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